Ongeri denies claims of Kenya trespassing

  SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTEMAILRATING

Foreign Affairs minister Sam Ongeri. Photo/FILE 

By AGGREY MUTAMBO amutambo@ke.nationmedia.com and DAVID LOMURIA dlomuria@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, August 22  2012 at  23:30

IN SUMMARY

• Kenya is ready to hold amicable talks with any country that claimed Kenya had taken part of its territory
• The triangular Ilemi region that measures about 10,320 square kilometres, west of Lake Turkana, joins Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia
• Kenyan scholar Maurice Amutabi says the place belongs to Kenya, based on colonial territories that Kenya inherited at independence

Kenya has not grabbed any part of it neighbours territory.

It had deposited its territorial map with the African Union and the United Nations, Foreign Affairs minister Sam Ongeri said on Wednesday.

“We are clear as a country where our boundaries are,” he told journalists in his office in Nairobi.

But Prof Ongeri added that Kenya would be ready to hold amicable talks with any country that claimed Kenya had taken part of its territory.

The minister was responding to claims made by a Somali minister that Kenya had entered part of its maritime territory to explore oil.

On Monday, Reuters news agency quoted Somali Foreign Affairs minister Abdullahi Haji as saying Kenya had trespassed.

On Tuesday, reports said that South Sudan had reported Kenya to the African Court of Justice over the controversial Ilemi Triangle.

Those reports were quickly denied by the South Sudanese embassy in Kenya, but he admitted the boundary at the region has yet to be determined.

Speaking to journalists in Nairobi, South Sudanese envoy Majok Guandong downplayed claims over the Ilemi Triangle saying, “there should be no alarm over the demarcation of the border since this is not an urgent issue.”

Share This Story

  

The triangular Ilemi region that measures about 10,320 square kilometres, west of Lake Turkana, joins Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia.

But Kenyan scholar Maurice Amutabi says the place belongs to Kenya, based on colonial territories that Kenya inherited at independence.

Mr Eliud Kerio, chairman of the Turkana County Council, asked the government to resolve the issue before it escalated.

He, however, questioned why the South Sudan was claiming ownership when its people were not living or grazing livestock there.

The discovery of oil in Turkana is likely to have influenced the claim, according to he Greater Turkana lobby group.

The lobby has called on the government to resolve the matter before the neighbouring community starts attacks.